Bloods hold off Magpies surge
Top of the ladder Trafalgar held off a late surge by Yinnar, winning 10-10 (70) to 8-9 (57).
Two of the league’s heavy hitters went head to head in a game that would have little impact on their ladder position, but would provide the benefit to each coach of learning a little more about what each team might have on show come finals time.
Yinnar coach Jaimie Aitken made it clear what his sides intentions were pre game
“We’re out to win it, we’re going to have a real crack and see how we go but we definitely want to win.”
How much you can take from the actual result is hard to know for certain, but one thing for sure these two sides will meet again.
Opportunities were shared in the first 30 minutes, with both teams having enough of the ball to make an impact, but it was to be the home side that would lead the way at quarter time with four goals from their five attempts, while the visitor could only manage two majors from their seven shots on goal.
The inaccuracy of the visitor has been a problem for quite a few weeks now, but against really good opposition, it would prove to be the difference.
The Bloods kicking with the aid of a breeze in the second quarter made the visitor pay by setting up a match winning lead, adding five goals and six behinds to just the Magpies’ single major, the lead to the host pushed out to better than six goals at the main break.
Better players for Trafalgar included Klay Butler, Darcy Brock, Damien Mann, Austin Byrne, Tyson Leys and Daniel Hayes with many more contributors and more than a handful of goal kickers, of which Matthew Swenson was the major contributor with three.
For Yinnar Nathan Rowley, Luke Linton, Dean Linton, Mark Stolk, Brendan Chapman, Sam McCulloch were best and Jim Dowling also finished the day with three goals.
With finals only a fortnight away the Magpies were keen to impress on the ladder leaders that any further encounters wouldn’t be as one sided as this contest was up until half time, and closed in on the Bloods during the third quarter, closing the margin to just two goals with a quarter to go.
Trafalgar however didn’t buckle under the pressure. Keeping their composure, they kept the Magpies at arms length for the final 30 minutes and for the second week in a row, proved that this season, unlike last, they have the maturity to go all the way.
With just a week of home and away football to go, any finals aspirants will have to come up with something different than what the’ve delivered so far if they want to get over the top of Trafalgar.
While Traflagar coach Clint Eisendel said he was happy with the first half, he was not very happy with the second half.
They lifted their intensity and it would be nice for us to respond, but in reality there probably isn’t too much difference between the two sides or any sides in the top five for that matter,” he said.